how many bowel movements should a formula fed baby have?

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my baby is 1 and a half weeks old and for the first couple days she was breast fed and would have about 4 movements a day and then she was on similac advance for 3 days but she would throw up what ever she would drink so we switched her to emfamil.the first bottle she drank she kept down and had a movement right after that but didnt have another one for 2 days and it was huge and then it was another 2 days for the next movement. is that normal for formula fed babies or should i switch formula again???

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Amber - posted on 03/25/2010

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The doctors wont worry if he is going every two days but it is a pain for the parent b/c they are fussy and gassy. I use soy formula and it helped my son (8wks old now). Also my friend's son was very constipated and the dr told her to use a thermometer and genlty wiggle it around in her bottom and massage her bottom as well. It should get everything moving and hopfully start a bm. Good Luck!

it really depends on how the babys body takes in the formula. my babys about 7 wks now and only poops when she can. im using the prosobee forumla. but why she doesnt poop all the time, or like 4 times + in a day is because of the high iron count. so like with adults taking iron, it makes us constipated like the babys. ive had to use a sapository a few times on my girl to get her to go bc she was in pain from not pooping. i had to cut it into a small piece for her so that way it wasnt too much on her body, but it helped and thenafter she was ok. but yeah, i think its just because of the iron in the formula. and there isnt any low iron formulas that i could find either.

Hi Jaime, i had the same problem with my baby boy, while i was breast feeding he had a movement every feed. I switched him to formula which was tough on him, we tried about 4 different ones and found Novelac for constipation was the best one, he poops twice dailey now. on the other formulas he was very blocked up and was in pain, you will know when you have found the right one although it does take a week or so for the baby to get used to the formula. Maybe take your baby to the doc and ask for a recommendation of a special constipation formula as i did. Good luck :)